The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Aspects of the invention relate to an open roof construction for a vehicle, comprising a roof opening defined in a stationary roof part of the vehicle and a panel that is movable between an open position for opening said roof opening and a closed position for fully closing said roof opening. The panel comprises a rear end that, as viewed in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, can be moved upward and downward by a moving mechanism comprising at least a support lever having a first support lever end which is slidable and rotatable with respect to the stationary roof part and an opposite second support lever end slidably and rotatably engaging the movable panel. A drive slides said first support lever end of the support lever along the stationary roof part, and a tilting lever has a first tilting lever end slidably and rotatably engaging a first guide curve of the stationary roof part and an opposite second tilting lever end configured to rotatably engage the support lever at an engagement location.
Such an open roof construction is known from EP-2.263.897-B1 and comprises a support lever (indicated as “tilting lever”) and a tilting lever (indicated as “auxiliary lever”). In a fully open position of the panel the engagement location is positioned substantially vertically below the second end of the support lever (“tilting lever”).
In this state of the art such a position of the engagement position is obtained by a downwardly extending part of the support lever which increases the vertical height (the so-called package height) of the construction. Moreover, because the most rearward position of the tilting lever (“auxiliary lever”) is limited by the rear edge of the roof opening, also the most rearward position of the second support lever end is limited thereby. In turn, this means that the most rearward position at which a panel in its fully open position can be supported (by said second support lever end) is also limited by the rear edge of the roof opening and as a result this limits the distance over which a panel can be moved to the rear over the stationary roof part without obtaining an unacceptable loss of stability of the panel. However, in modern open roof designs there is a trend towards increasingly larger panels which can be moved to a position with increasingly larger free roof opening in the open position of the panel.